“Significant financial concerns” lead to major curriculum changes, including cutting solo vocal studies.

Australia’s oldest music college, the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide, sparked outrage among its student population when it emerged on Monday that the institution is to discontinue its solo classical vocal performance degree, as well as making several other major changes to its curriculum. These include a significant restructure of the conservatorium’s centre of Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM), which is to be absorbed into Adelaide University’s School of Humanities as part of a new Centre for Aboriginal Language and Music Studies. Jazz Performance, Popular Music and Creative Technologies, and Music Education and Pedagogy courses will also be subject to restructuring measures and staff losses.

Although the details of the proposal are yet to be formally communicated to the student body, the major changes to the Elder Con’s curriculum were revealed in a leaked staff memorandum. In the memo, written by Professor Jennie Shaw, Executive Dean of Adelaide University’s Faculty of Arts, “significant financial concerns,” and “competition for students from other tertiary institutions” were cited as the catalyst for the proposed changes. These latest cost saving measures follow cuts to the Elder Conservatorium’s vocational music...